Conceptualizing and Implementing the Fifth Millennium Development Goal through the Nigerian Midwives Service Scheme

Abstract:

The objective of
the fifth Millennium Development Goal is to reduce maternal mortality by three
quarters by the year 2015. All 189 member countries of the United Nations were
expected to develop their own strategy for implementing this objective. The
Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria developed the Midwives Service Scheme in
2009, which mirrored a model earlier conceptualized and published in Tropical
Doctor 2007. Since the outset of the Midwives Service Scheme, several economic
and health benefits have been realized. These include gainful employment for
all newly qualified, unemployed and retired midwives, improvement in the health
care delivery to erstwhile medically underserved areas, a yet to be estimated
reduction in maternal mortality ratio and a better utilization of the facilities
in the primary health care centers.